The Hohenzollerns in America / With the Bolsheviks in Berlin and Other Impossibilities

S.S. Americ

gang-plank into the steerage, with their boxes on their backs. They looked so different in their rough clothes. Uncle William is wearing an old blue shirt and a red handkerchief round his neck, and his

int Helena." I heard an officer down on the dock call up, "Now then, my man, move on there smartly, please." And I saw som

. When Uncle set down his box, there was soon quite a little crowd around him, so that I could hardly see him. But I could hear them laughing, and I knew that they were "taking a rise out of him," a

aking face Cousin Willie has. In his uniform, as Crown Prince, it was different. But in his shabby clothes, among these rough people, he seems so changed. He

re. We thought they were to come on this ship, but they are not he

port and said, "Shut it, help me shut it, shut out the sound of the sea;" and then for a little time he sat on one of the bunks all hunched up, and muttering, "Don't let me hear the sea, don't let me

noticed before how queer and thick Cousin Ferdinand's speech is, and how much he gesticulates with his hands when he talks. I am sure that when I visited at Sofia nobody ever noticed it. And he called Uncle

erstand. We have only a little money, but Cousin Ferdinand said that we would put it all together and make it a pool. But when Uncle Henry laughed, and turned his pockets ou

ey out of the pile into his pocket: at least I think I saw it; but he

Uncle was famished from the long waiting and the bad food in the emigrant shed. It was dreadful to see the hungry way that he ate the greasy stew they gav

inand talked Yiddish. I remember him at Sofia, on horseback addressing his army, and I don't think he talked to his troops in Yiddish. He was telling them, I remember, how sorry he was

ht, is he, Miss Hohen?" I didn't know what he meant, but, of course, I said that Uncle William was only my uncle. Hohen is, I should explain, the name by which we are known now. The young man said that he wasn't really a steward, only just for the trip. He said that, because I had a strange feeling that I had met him before, and asked him if I hadn't seen him at one of the courts. But he said he had never been "up before one" in his life. He s

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ll. So I put on an old shawl and went with him. The ship was pitching and heaving with a dreadful straining and creaking noise. A di

ed on the side of the bed and there was a great horror in his eyes. "The sea; the sea," he kept saying, "don't let

the port. Then he broke out, almost screaming-"Henry, brother Henry, keep them back! Don't let them drag me down. I never willed it

iet him. Cousin Willie had slipped away, I don't know whe

kept growling "or do I not? Say,

one min

ooked drawn and gray and the cords stood out on his

s no court physician, no bulletins to reass

r and the captain, all in uniform, with gol

here last night," I

ed, "only one of the steerage pa

xcept for one leg,-and Uncle William sat in it with his face away from the sea. He seemed much shaken and looked gray and tired, but he talked quite quietly and rationally about our going to America, and how we must all work, because work is man's lot. He himself, he s

nd that was when he was telling Uncle Henry that it was his particular wish that Uncle should go to the captain and offer to take over the navigation of the vessel. Uncle He

he had had enough of being Admiral to last him all his life. But

merica

very close and horrid. So when it is rough, I can only sit in the alley-way with my knitting. There the light is very dim and the air bad. But I do not complain. It is woman's lot. Uncle W

seem to bear it so well, too. Uncle Henry goes and washes his hands and face at one of the ship's pumps before every meal, with a great noise and splashing, but Cousin Ferdinand says, "For me th

Karl had on a waiter's suit and was bringing something to drink to two men who were in steamer chairs on the deck. I don't know whether he saw me or not, but if he did he didn't give any sign of recognizing me. One of the men gave

d that it was not a thing for us to discuss, and that if Karl did it, it was an "act of State," and no doubt very painful to Cousin Karl to have to do. Zita asked Uncle if Karl poisoned dear old Uncle Franz Joseph, because some of Karl's best and most i

ousin Karl on the upper deck, reminded me of all the harmless go

y aft

him all day yesterday as he seems to keep out of sight. His e

he ship. Then he said, "Come here a minute," and he led me round a corner to where no one could see, and showed me a gold brooch and two diamond rings. He told me not to tell the others, and then he tried t

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admiral. I couldn't think what he meant, as I never guess things with a double meaning, so he explained that he has got work as a sailor for the voyage across. I thought he looked very nice in his sailor's jersey, much nicer than in the coat with gold facings, when he w

capital, and then he would take it and keep it. Uncle Henry is to get what is called, in the new money, one seventy-five a day, and to get it for four days, and Cousin Ferdinand says that comes to four dollars and a quarter. Cousin Ferdinand is very quick with figures. He says that he will have to take

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ere in sight of land. He told me the names of the places, but they were hard and difficult t

the sleeves and it shines a little, but I had stitched it here and there and it looked quite nice. He put it on with a pair of gray trousers that are quite good, and

h he wouldn't do all the way across. He stood there in quite an attitude with his imperfect hand folded in

that the other passengers were quite impressed with the way Uncle looked, and it pleased hi

jersey. But Cousin Ferdinand has put on a bright red ti

to keep out of sight. I think it must have something to do with the brooch that he showed me, and the rings. His eyes

t passed a huge statue that rises out of the water, the name of which they m

ttle while we shal